The Final Divide: Eternal Life or Eternal Wrath, Part 2

He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

God's Judgment is Impartial

In Romans 1:18-3:19, Paul is laboring to show that Jews and
Gentiles are all under the power of sin and that they will be
without excuse at the judgment day if they do not receive the gift
of God's righteousness by faith in Christ. Romans 3:9 is the key
summary verse, "What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for
we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under
sin." The aim, according to Romans 3:19, is that "Every mouth may
be closed and all the world may become accountable to God."

So Paul deals with the Gentiles in Romans 1:18-32, and shows
that the whole world is without excuse before God because the truth
is available and known, but suppressed and disobeyed. Then in
Romans 2:1-5, Paul shows that those who have access to special
revelation and can pass judgment on the immoral pagans are in the
same trouble, because they judge others but do the same kinds of
things themselves.

Now he comes to verses 6-10 and he describes the future judgment
that every one of us - Jews and Gentiles - will face. And what he
stresses is that the judgment will not be according to ethnic or
religious background or knowledge. Because then God would have to
be partial. But verse 11 says, "There is no partiality with God."
Instead he says that judgment for eternal life and eternal wrath is
"according to deeds." Let's read the exposition of verse 6 in the
two pairs in verses 7-10.

[God] will render to each person according to his deeds: 7 to
those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor
and immortality, [he will render] eternal life; 8 but to those who
are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, [he will render] wrath and indignation. 9 There
will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does
evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, 10 but glory and
honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and
also to the Greek.

So the main point is: Jews and Greeks (that is, "Gentiles") will
get "eternal life" (verse 7), or "wrath and indignation" (verse 8)
not in accord with Jewishness or any inherited distinctive, but
"according to their works." Jews may go first into heaven and first
into hell, but whether they go to the one or the other will be
decided the same way for them as for everyone else. That's the main
point of the text.

"According to Works" - What is Not in Question

But here's an urgent question. How does receiving eternal life
or eternal wrath "according to works" fit with receiving eternal
life by faith in Jesus Christ on the basis of God's righteousness,
not ours? In general there are two possible answers to this
question. But before I give them to you, let me make sure you see
what is in question and what is not.

Here is what is not in question. We are not questioning whether
we are justified, set right with God, and eternally secured not on
the basis of our deeds, but on the basis of God's own righteousness
imputed to us through our faith in Christ alone.

So, for example, Romans 3:28 says, "We maintain that a man is
justified by faith apart from works of the Law." Faith is the bond
that unites a person to Christ, who is himself the foundation of
justification.

The key of faith is even clearer in Romans 4:5, "But to the one
who does not work, but believes in [that is, "trusts," "has faith
in"] Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as
righteousness." So faith functions to unite us to Christ before we
have the good deeds of godliness, and this faith is treated as if
it were our righteousness because it unites us to God's
righteousness.

Again Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, having been justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." So
justification - getting right with God - is through faith, not
deeds.

And finally, Romans 8:33-34 shows that what is at stake here is
indeed the final judgment and eternal life, as in Romans 2:7. "Who
will bring a charge against God's elect? [Future tense, namely, at
the judgment day!] God is the one who justifies." In other words,
no one is going to be able to override the judgment of God in
declaring his elect ones acquitted on the basis of Christ's death
for them. Then he states that basis in verse 34, "Who is the one
who condemns? [implied: nobody! Why? Because . . .] Christ Jesus is
He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand
of God, who also intercedes for us." So the death of Christ in my
place, and the justification (the righteousness God imputes) is the
basis of the gift of eternal life, not our deeds.

That's what is not in question.

"According to Works" - What Is in Question

What is in question is how the judgment "according to works"
here in Romans 2:6-10 fits together with that. I said that, in
general, there are two possible answers to this question. One says
that eternal life would be based on perfect obedience if anybody
had it. But nobody does, and so the only way to eternal life is by
faith in Christ. The other way says that God never promised eternal
life on the basis of good deeds, but always makes good deeds the
evidence of faith that unites us to God in Christ, who is the basis
of eternal life.

Let me try to say it another way, using verse 7 in particular.
Verse 7 says, "To those who by perseverance in doing good seek for
glory and honor and immortality, [God will give] eternal life."
What does that mean?

The first answer would say, it means that God would give eternal
life on the basis of perfect obedience if anybody had it. But
nobody does, and so the point of the verse is simply to stress the
hopelessness of man without the gospel of grace.

The other answer would say, it means that God does indeed give
eternal life to those who persevere in obedience not because this
obedience is perfect or because it is the basis or the merit of
eternal life, but because saving faith always changes our lives in
the power of the Holy Spirit so that true believers persevere in
doing good. In other words, a changed life of obedience to God's
truth (verse 8) is not the basis of eternal life, but the evidence
of authentic faith which unites us to Christ who is the basis of
eternal life.

Now, I think this second way of viewing these verses is correct.
This is why verse 6 says, "[God] will render to every person
according to his deeds," not "on the basis of" his deeds, or
"because of the merit of his deeds." Eternal life is always based
on Jesus Christ and through our faith. But since faith, by the Holy
Spirit, always sanctifies or changes us into the image of Christ
(one degree at a time, 2 Corinthians 3:18), there will be deeds
that "accord with" this saving faith. So while eternal life will be
awarded only to believers, it will be awarded "according to" -
there will be an accord with -their deeds. There will be a way of
life that God can put on display to demonstrate to the world that
this person's faith was real.

That's the way I understand these verses. Let me give you some
reasons for this understanding.

Not Earned by Deeds

1. The first reason is simply that the verses don't look like
they are hypothetical. They don't sound that way. They sound
straightforward, to the effect that God gives eternal life - not
that he would, but that he does - to those who have "perseverance
in good work." This seems the most natural way to take the
verses.

2. There is a clue in verses 4b-5 that Paul, in these verses,
does not have perfect obedience in mind as the path to eternal
life. ". . . not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to
repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart
you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath . . ."
Notice the importance of repentance.

It's because they have unrepentant hearts that they are storing
up wrath in the judgment. So if they had repentant hearts, they
would not store up wrath at the judgment day. This is a pointer to
the fact that Paul is not thinking in an all-or-nothing way about
righteousness here. He is thinking that God is kind and merciful
and willing to forgive people for their sins if they will repent
and turn to him for mercy. He doesn't stress yet what the basis of
that mercy is in Christ's death, but he does show that
"perseverance in doing good" probably includes a repentant heart
that depends on mercy for forgiveness for failures. That's the path
to eternal life.

3. Consider Romans 6:22. Here Paul describes the Christian life
and how it relates to holiness and eternal life. He says, "But now
having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your
benefit [literally: you have your fruit], resulting in
sanctification [or holiness], and the outcome [the goal, telos],
eternal life." Now notice how eternal life is related to the life
of a believer. It is the goal or the "outcome." Of what? Of being
enslaved to God (by faith, I would argue) which yields the fruit of
holiness.

This is very close to what Romans 2:7 says. There it says that
God will give eternal life to those who persevere
in good work.
Here it says that eternal life is the outcome of the holiness that
comes from being freed from sin and enslaved to God.

4. Consider Romans 8:12-13. "So then, brethren, we are under
obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - for
if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by
the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will
live." What is at stake here? What is at stake is death and life,
and the meaning is clearly spiritual and eternal, not temporal -
because people die and live temporally on a very different basis
from what these verses say. So they are describing the path that
leads to eternal life.

And what is it? Verse 13: "If you are living [this is actual
lived-out behavior in view] according to the flesh, you must die;
but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body
[notice that the issue is a practical battle with sin in our bodily
life], you will live." So the point again is the same as Romans
2:7. There it says that God will give eternal life to those who
persevere in doing good; here is says that God will give eternal
life to those who put to death the deeds of the body. That is how
we persevere in doing good. We live by the Spirit through faith.
The good deeds don't earn eternal life. They are the fruit of
depending on the power of the Spirit in faith.

5. Finally, consider Galatians 6:8-9. Galatians is the book
closest to Romans in the argument it develops about justification
by faith. So we are in the same orbit of thought. As I read these
two verses, watch for how eternal life comes to Christians. Paul is
speaking to the church: "The one who sows to his own flesh will
from the flesh reap corruption [the opposite of immortality], but
the one who sows to the Spirit [see Romans 8:13] will from the
Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for
in due time we will reap [eternal life] if we do not grow
weary."

This is virtually identical in thought to Romans 2:7. There God
gives eternal life to those who persevere in doing good. Here in
verse 9, if we don't "lose heart in doing good" (which is the same
as "persevering in doing good") we will reap. Reap what? Verse 8:
"The one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal
life."

Now, in none of these texts does it say that eternal life is
earned by or merited by or based on good deeds. They simply say, in
effect, that the final verdict of eternal life will accord with
good deeds. They go together. And the reason they go together is
not that works has replaced faith or that merit has replaced grace,
but because the gospel of justification by faith is the power of
God unto salvation. It is not a weak thing. The gospel does not
come into a life and leave it under the dominion of sin. It comes
in the power of the Holy Spirit. And where it is believed, trusted
and cherished, it produces what Paul calls "the obedience of faith"
(Romans 1:5; 16:26). And eternal life always accords with that.

Trust Christ to Bring You to the Father

The implication of this is plain: Tremble at the magnitude of
what is at stake in your life! And trust Christ to bring you to the
Father. And do you see what that implies?

1. One of the reasons there is false faith is that some people
think they are trusting Christ to bring them to the Father, when
they don't even want the Father. They want their sins forgiven and
they want to escape hell, but they don't want God. They don't love
him. The very notion of knowing him and loving and wanting him
above all things is foreign to them. So they may say that they are
trusting Christ to bring them to the Father, but, in fact, they are
trying to use Christ to get the gifts of God, not God. Don't do
that. Love God. Want God. Cherish God. Delight in God. God himself
is the Content and Goal of saving faith.

2. Finally, when you trust Christ to bring you to the Father,
you trust him to enable you to do whatever it takes to get to the
Father. If there are good deeds that need to be done, you don't
turn from faith to works. You lean all the more on Christ who will
work in you what is pleasing in God's sight. When he died for you,
he bought not only justification, but sanctification. If holiness
is needed, holiness will be given to those who trust him.

Trust him.

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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